The 30-year-old Londoner – who is running half of the London Marathon – revealed he was running late live on the radio.

He shouted to a waiting BBC presenter: “Radio 5, gotta go! Gotta run, run, run, run!”

Asked how he was feeling, he said as he ran down the street: “Yeah, feeling good.” And has he warmed up? “Not yet!” he replied.

“I’m late! I woke up late! I’m going to miss the bus!” he laughed.

The Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m champion added: “It should be good weather as well, so I’m quite excited.”

The build-up to Farah’s participation in this year’s London Marathon has been shrouded in controversy as he will be paid a reported £425,000 for taking part in the 2013 and 2014 events.

There has been talk of murky motives and money-grabbing, with critics of his plan to run to halfway, as practice for making his full 26.2 mile debut next year, accusing him of cashing in on his status and going against the spirit of the mass-participation event.

Source: The Telegraph

But Farah, who won the mini-marathon event three times in a row between 1998 and 2000 as a west London schoolboy, has said the race brings back plenty of happy memories.

Asked how he expected to pull out of the race at the 13.1 mile mark – expected to be around Tower Bridge – he said, “I’m not sure mate”, before jogging to catch his bus.

Farah’s sleepy incident echoed an episode of American sitcom Seinfeldthat featured a marathon runner who missed an Olympic race and the New York Marathon after encountering alarm clock trouble and oversleeping.